RIE examines Installation Record Checks process

Published May 13, 2014
By Kimberly Woodruff
Tinker Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- A recent rapid improvement event should make the hiring process quicker for multiple base facilities.

The RIE, championed by Col. Stephen Wood, 72nd Air Base Wing vice commander, examined Installation Record Checks, specifically with new employees or volunteers who work with or around children. Among the facilities included are the Child Development Centers, Tinker Youth Center, Tinker Chapel, Family Advocacy and the 72nd Force Support Squadron Human Resource Office.

Colonel Wood said the team did a great job identifying improvements in the timeliness of the personal background check process and identified changes to enable new non-appropriated fund employees and volunteers to start work quicker, therefore adding productivity for Team Tinker.

"This supports a key tenant of cost effective readiness, getting more capability for the same cost," he said.

Between July 2013 and January 2014, there were 140 Installation Record checks processed, with 119 of them taking approximately 21 days to adjudicate. This equates to 85 percent of projected new hires or volunteers waiting three weeks or longer to assume duties. Waiting three weeks is an issue not only for the prospective employees, but also for the programs that need these people to start working.

"One of the problems was that sometimes people would batch the checks together and maybe only work them all on a Thursday," said Tech. Sgt. LaChanda Parsons, noncommissioned officer in charge of Chapel Operations. When several places have a part in the records check, sometimes it is a waiting game for the next in line and checks have the potential to be lost in the shuffle, she said.

During the RIE, the team discovered that the CDCs, youth center and chapel each had different processes. The goal is to determine a new base process for adjudicating installation records checks in 14 working days or less by the end of May.

Greg Tirey, from the 72nd ABW SharePoint Office, assisted the RIE team with a SharePoint solution site that could track the Status of an IRC and notify action officer of the pending requirement.

"SharePoint has so much potential. I know that the site will streamline the process, if users commit to using SharePoint daily," said Mr. Tirey. He went on to say, "I've seen so many SharePoint Solutions fix user process time." The installation Records Check is just another example of how SharePoint can cut down considerably, the number of days to process an IRC possibly to seven days or less.."

Sometime in the future, the team hopes to allow new hires who don't yet have their common access card digitally sign the necessary forms, making the records check process that much quicker.

Sergeant Parsons said there were times when she or other team members lost focus on the RIE thinking about other work they needed to be doing. Gregg Burgess, a facilitator, told them, "It seems like a lot of time spent doing an RIE, but hopefully you'll get all that time back by the end of the process." Finding a way to fix the process will be rewarding for everyone involved.